Egyptian soldiers take their positions on top and next to their armored vehicles to guard an entrance of Tahrir Square in Cairo. / Hassan Ammar, AP

by Sarah Lynch, Special for USA TODAY

by Sarah Lynch, Special for USA TODAY

CAIRO â?? Egyptians of varying political stripes expressed skepticism and indifference to the news that the Obama administration is shifting decades of U.S. foreign policy by cutting aid to the Egyptian military for not moving fast enough to restore democracy.

"I think it will not make a big difference, and this decision will be revised probably in three or four months because both parties need each other," said Mohamed Abou El Ghar, head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, a liberal group.

Since Egypt's military ousted the nation's first freely elected leader in July with the backing of millions of Egyptians, the United States has mulled cutting aid to the regionally strategic nation. Even so, Washington hasn't described the overthrow of Mohammed Morsi as a coup, which would require the United States by law to cut military assistance.

Said Sadek, a political sociologist at the American University in Cairo and an activist, said the cutting of aid "doesn't look like a serious thing."

Any halting of aid could benefit â?? rather than negatively effect â?? Egypt's most powerful institution, Sadek said.

"It will be used domestically to mobilize public opinion to support the army," Sadek said, as well as to support Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who overthrew Morsi in July and is being pushed by some supporters to run in the country's next presidential election.

"It will look like Obama is pressuring the independent, patriotic Al-Sisi," Sadek said, "so if Al-Sisi is going to use that to look like a national hero â?¦ it will help his media campaign if he wants to be elected as a president. It will boost him."

Omar Ayman, a student at an American school in Cairo and a supporter of the military general, said he doesn't care about the United States and whether or not it will cut aid.

"We are strong people, and we don't need any help from anyone," he said, echoing a sentiment that has been widespread here in recent months. "If they want to help us, they have to be good to us, not just give us money and treat us in a bad way."

Others say halting aid could have serious implications.

"Egyptians â?¦ are emotional and will say they don't want aid from the U.S. 'We don't need it; we want to be more independent in our decisions, and we don't want interference,'" said Mohamed Soliman, student leader for the Constitution Party. "But from a pragmatic perspective, this decision is disastrous."

Egypt is a major country in the Middle East, and the military "can't fight this war alone â?? the war on terror, defending the state, trying to secure the border between Egypt and Libya and trying to stop the influx of jihadists to Sinai," he said. "They need equipment, training, international support." Cutting aid would be "a devastating decision."

Over the summer, the United States canceled a joint military exercise and halted delivery of four F-16s to Egypt to register displeasure with the overthrow. But President Obama recently vowed to work with Egypt to continue counterterrorism efforts, such as those in the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel and Gaza.

Robert Springborg, an expert on the Egyptian military and professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., said the United States recognizes it has serious national interests in Egypt and won't jeopardize them.

"The day-to-day interactions between the two sides, it seems to me, will continue, and they might actually increase, so I don't see this as much more than a symbolic act," he said. "I think this is about as light a reaction as you could anticipate."

Even so, Springborg said Egypt's military will react negatively in public to any assistance cuts as people don't like to be seen as penalized for behavior they deem to be appropriate, he said.

"Forget the actual impact of military assistance," he said. "It's a political statement, so it's a mild form of political censure by the Obama administration of the Egyptian military."

Since July, Egypt's military-backed leadership has declared an internal war on "terrorism." The crackdown has involved sweeping arrests of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members, as well as what human rights groups described as excessive use of force in dispersing Brotherhood-led protests and sit-ins.

Wednesday, a Cairo court announced that Morsi will stand trial Nov. 4 on charges of inciting murder of political opponents during his presidency.

Attacks have increased on security sites, primarily in the Sinai Peninsula, bolstering public support for the government crackdown. Monday, eight security personnel were killed as three attacks hit different locations across the country.

"My belief is that after the trial of Morsi and things settle down, Egypt and America must come back again together, and the relation will be normalized," Abou El Ghar said.

Khaled Matei, who is acting as a spokesperson for the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party while many of the group's leaders are in hiding or in jail, indicated that the movement is waiting to read public opinion on a possible aid cut.

"We are with the people on the streets," Matei said. "If the people welcome cutting it, we will agree with the people. If they are not, we will not agree."

The Muslim Brotherhood and the Freedom and Justice Party accept aid from any country around the world on the condition that the countries providing aid don't interfere in Egypt's business and decisions, Matei said. "Don't give us money and then control our political decisions," he said.

Some Brotherhood supporters such as Ahmed Hassan â?? who attended pro-Morsi rallies over the summer â?? doubt the flow of aid to Egypt will stop.

"I don't think they will cut it," he said. "Maybe they will cut it a little bit, but they will never cut it all. They like Al-Sisi and his military.

"Maybe they will say, 'OK, we will cut military aid because this is American law, but we will allow Saudi Arabia or the UAE to give aid to Egypt, but under the table,' " he said. "Something like that, I think, will happen."